November 20/00 1:34 am - Celebration, CCA AGM, BMX News, Birthdays

Posted by Editor on 11/20/00

Cycling Celebration

We want to thank everyone who attended or contributed to making the Cycling Celebration party a tremendous success on Saturday night (November 18th). Over 275 people crowded into the Steam Whistle Brewery to meet Canada's Olympians, past and present.

Possibly the most powerful gathering of Canadian cycling talent in recent history!

We were pleased to note the number of young fans who attended with their parents, and the athletes were quite moved by the number of autographer seekers, fans and well-wishers who wanted to make contact. In addition, presidents of provincial cycling associations from coast to coast to coast (yes, even including the Yukon) took time off from their CCA AGM meetings to party into the wee hours of the morning.

During the formal presentation of the Sydney athletes the applause was sustained, none more so then when Curt Harnett presented plaques (on behalf of the CCA) to retiring stars Tanya Dubnicoff and Brian Walton. Tanya then gave an extremely moving speech about her Olympic experience and her team mates, completely dominating the crowd (as only she can do so well...).

The morning after the Cycling Celebration the Canadian Cycling Association held their Annual General Meeting. While much of the AGM consists of housekeeping matters such as financial statements and by-law amendments, there were a few important points worthy of note:

- the past-President position has been added to the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors (BoD). It will be a non-voting, advisory position.- provincial association presidents who go on to the Executive Committee must resign as president of their provincial association (meaning they can't wear two hats on the BoD).- the major by-law proposed which was defeated, was one which would reduce the Athlete's Rep vote on the High Performance Committee (HP) from 2 votes to 1. The current Athletes Rep, Andreas Hestler, argued quite convincingly on behalf of the athletes. Hestler also put forward suggestions that athletes should have representation on both the Development Committee (DC) and Executive (non-voting). While there was general consensus that DC representation was a good idea, the Executive were strenuously opposed to adding athletes to their committee, citing confidentiality issues (staff salaries, etc. are reviewed by the Executive).

The other item on the agenda was elections (to the BoD and to committees). Unfortunately, all positions up for election were filled by acclaimation (ie, only one person ran). While the point was made that many of these positions have specific skill and qualification requirements, it is still troubling that there are so few people interested in pursuing these positions. It was also noted that there was little publicity surrounding the positions up for election.

The new classes will add excitement to the new race season. Also at the AGM, the CBA awarded Kevin O'Brien with the 'Humanitarian' Award for dedication to the sport of BMX as a racer, trainer, volunteer, organizer and promoter.